Film star Katy Jurado - the only Mexican actress ever nominated for an Oscar - has died aged 78, her family said.

She planted the Mexican flag in the US film industry, and made her country proud

Mauricio HernandezNational Actors Association

As well as a host of Mexican films, she appeared in High Noon as Gary Cooper's former mistress, and with Spencer Tracy in Broken Lance, for which she received her nomination for best supporting actress.

The actress - whose real name was Maria Cristina Jurado Garcia - was found dead in her house by her nurse on Friday in Cuernavaca in central Mexico .

Katy Jurado was a giant of Mexican film

"She died when her heart stopped beating at eight in the morning," her nephew, Oscar Jurado, told the Reuters news agency.

The actress was known to have suffered from lung and heart ailments.

Jurado had appeared in more than 20 Mexican films since the 1940s and earned the Mexican film industry's highest prize, the Ariel award, for her role in El Bruto.

Sporadic career

The actress also appeared in films in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Among her American films was an appearance in cult western One Eyed Jacks, directed by and starring Marlon Brando, as well as Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

Jurado was directed by Marlon Brando in One Eyed Jacks

Her lengthy but sporadic career north of the border had started with Budd Boetticher's Bullfighter and the Lady in 1951.

And her dedication to her art was shown when she gained 22 pounds in 22 days to play the part of Annie Lightcloud in Stay Away, Joe (1968).

Her Oscar-nominated performance in Broken Lance came under the direction of blacklisted director Edward Dmytryk, who had informed on fellow communists.

She was married to US actor Ernest Borgnine - himself a star of many Westerns including The Wild Bunch - from 1958 to 1963. He once
called her "beautiful, but a tiger".

Her last appearance in a US film came in Stephen Frears' The Hi-Lo Country in 1998.

The actress died in Cuernavaca, near Mexico City

"She planted the Mexican flag in the US film industry, and made her country proud," said Mauricio Hernandez, an actors' association official.

Her body has been taken to Mexico City, so that people can pay their respects before a memorial service organised by an actors' association is held.

There will then be a second memorial service in Cuernavaca, where she will be buried.